MEDICARE AND PRIVACY
Children can apply for their own Medicare card
(and number) when they turn 15, without parental
consent . Those under 15 can apply with parental
consent .
Young people do not necessarily have to have
their own Medicare card to seek a health service
that attracts a Medicare rebate independently of
their parents . Health professionals may accept the
Medicare number linked to the patient’s parents
without physically seeing the card .
Medicare records include the identity and specialty
of the provider of a health service and the type of
service received . If a young person has their own
Medicare card, parents and guardians cannot
access Medicare record information without the
consent of the young person .
If the young person
is still on the family Medicare card and aged 14 or
15, generally their consent must be obtained before
information about Medicare records is released to
parents or guardians .
Parents and guardians have the right to request
Medicare Australia to approach health providers
about whether they will release information about
their adolescent child .
Once a child is 16, Medicare can only give information to parents or guardians with the young person’s
consent .
EHEALTH RECORDS AND PRIVACY
The eHealth system is designed to contain an electronic summary of a person’s key health information
such as prescribed medications, allergies and treatments they have received . Health practitioners can
upload health information to the eHealth record for
individual patients and view the information in it
uploaded by other practitioners .
Young people under 18 may have an eHealth
record .
A person with parental responsibility for a person
under 18 can register for an eHealth record on their
child’s behalf . The parent can then access and
control the eHealth record of that young person
on their behalf as an “Authorised Representative”,
until the young person takes control of their eHealth
record or turns 18 .
If the young person has capacity to consent to
treatment and confidentiality in their own right, a
parent cannot be their “Authorised Representative
”
unless the child consents to this .
When a young person turns 14, information from
both the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) and
Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) will cease to
be included in their eHealth record . This information
will only be made available again if the young
person takes control of their eHealth record and
consents to the inclusion of MBS and/or PBS data .
If a young person is under 14 and would like to take
control of their existing eHealth record or register
for an eHealth record, they will need to prove to
the System Operator that they can make decisions
about their healthcare and can manage their
eHealth record
